As announced by well-connected insiders, Bungie has fired the leadership duo responsible for the best moments in the original Destiny: Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy. The two had not worked on Destiny 2 in recent years, but on Destiny Payback, a spin-off to Destiny. However, the project has been canceled.
Why are the two so important? Designer Luke Smith was primarily responsible for the best moments in Destiny 1, and his producer Mark Noseworthy had been his work partner since 2015:
- Smith managed to save the story of Destiny 1 to some extent, after the original author had left. Above all, he designed the great raid “The Vault of Glass” and contributed his experience as an avid WoW player.
- Smith delivered his masterpiece in 2015 with the expansion “The Taken King” – this is generally seen as the best time in Destiny overall. He worked on the expansion while players were just getting into Vanilla Destiny 1.
- In 2017, he had to step in again and save Destiny 2 after a 2nd reboot shortly before release was necessary. This time he did not succeed in the rescue. However, Smith was a key figure in the years that followed, until the reorientation of Destiny 2 in 2019 without Activision.
The A-Team disappeared since 2019, working on a new game in the Destiny universe
What have they been doing for the past years? As revealed by insider Jeff Grubb, the two have been working on Destiny: Payback for several years. It was supposed to be the next big thing in the Destiny universe, but not Destiny 3. Destiny 3 was never in development.
As insider Jason Schreier knows, Payback was a spin-off to Destiny, on which only “very light work” had been done so far.
Smith and Noseworthy have hardly been seen since mid-2019, and it’s suspected that they have been working on a new game since around that time – perhaps even since 2017. Parsons had once confirmed that Bungie has been working on new games since 2017.
No more room in the leadership team without their game
Why did they have to go? As Payback was canceled and the management was restructured, there was no more room for Smith and Noseworthy, it is said (via GameSpot).
Noseworthy and Smith were allegedly fired as part of the layoffs announced by Pete Parsons. They were apparently included when it came to the point that many in Bungie’s leadership had to leave.
When exactly Payback was canceled – whether only now with the official announcement or even “some time ago” is still unclear at this point.
Destiny has been directionless without Smith for years
What makes it all so strange? Luke Smith was for years, from 2014 to 2019, “the face” of Destiny. In 2019, he, along with Noseworthy, announced a major departure into a time without Activision and painted a rosy future.
However, he did not actively participate in that future anymore, but disappeared.
What he did after the big show in 2019 remained largely in the dark. A “new leadership” was supposed to take over, but Joe Blackburn, who had been brought back from The Elder Scrolls Online for this, left the studio in 2024.
Since then, Destiny has appeared directionless.
One of the reasons for the decline of Destiny in the last 5 years
What lies behind this: Bungie is pulling the best team they have from Destiny 2 to work on a new game. Just that is already a decision that can be sharply criticized.
But what comes of it?
- After 5 years, they then fire the leadership duo because Destiny 2 has been performing poorly – without them.
- And the work on the new project was also in vain.
In the 5 to 7 years that Smith and Noseworthy have been working on this ominous “Destiny Payback”, they could have led two expansions for Destiny 2, perhaps saving us from something like Lightfall and Shadowkeep, and Destiny 2 would now be in a better state.
Based on the information we currently have, it was in any case a fatal misjudgment of the situation that Destiny is so stable that Bungie can afford to pull the best people off and focus on new projects. Ultimately, Parsons himself admits this in his statement:
For over five years, our goal has been to develop games in three enduring global franchises. To achieve this goal, we have initiated several incubation projects, each staffed with senior developers from our existing teams. We ultimately realized that this model thinned our talent pool too much. It also forced us to scale our studio support structures to a larger level than we could realistically support, given our two main products in development – Destiny and Marathon.
The “senior developers from existing teams” were apparently Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy.
The “thinned-out talents” were apparently the Destiny 2 team without them.
Even if Luke Smith is a red flag for many fans because he is associated with unpopular decisions like sunsetting and controversial statements, he was actually the jewel of Destiny and the developer team with his MMO expertise and clear statements, at least as it was communicated outwardly. One of his “worst moments” actually occurred during his best work: Destiny: Game Director defends price for expansion, makes everything even worse
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